Riva Blu Italian Restaurant & Bar, Liverpool — Restaurant in Liverpool

I had my baby shower here on the semi-private mezzanine for 14 people on a Saturday at 3PM. I hired an events company to decorate the table and put up some balloons. The restaurant permitted an hour for the events company to do this prior to my booking. The restaurant also extended my booking to 3 hours instead of the usual 2 hours 30 minutes. Therefore, I was given a 4 hour slot in total at no extra cost which I was incredibly grateful for. Unfortunately, this still wasn’t enough time. The events company went over by approximately 15/20 minutes and I still needed to add some props to the table which meant we weren’t all sat down until 3.40PM. We didn’t get our starters until 4-4.15PM which meant we only had 1 hour and 45 minutes/2 hours to finish a 3 course meal, to play some games, to take photos and open presents. We finished our last course at 5.50PM which meant we only had 10 minutes left. We were soon asked to leave as they had another booking and we were also asked to go downstairs to pay the bill as they wanted to set up the table for the next booking. Due to this, we were in a mad rush taking photos next to the balloon decorations and I didn’t have time to open any presents. Once downstairs, paying the bill was a bit of a disaster. We were all huddled at the entrance waiting to pay and it was very busy with people coming in and out. We had pre-ordered our food and I had confirmed the final bill with the restaurant via email. I had this confirmed so I could pay from the one card making the transaction easier for the attendees and the restaurant. To make payment even smoother, I asked the restaurant via email if everyone could pay for their drinks as and when they ordered. This didn’t happen and when it came to paying the bill, they had put the drinks on the same bill as the food. I paid the confirmed food bill and any drinks that were ordered needed to be looked at and paid for by each attendee. This meant we were stood by the entrance for approximately 15 minutes waiting for everyone to finish up paying. Once everyone had paid for their drinks, there was still £14.70 left to pay. I’m unsure why this was left over but I had to pay it from my own card. We wouldn’t have been blocking the entrance for 15/20 minutes and I wouldn’t have had to pay extra on my card if the restaurant took payment for drinks as when ordered like requested. By putting it all on one bill they not only made it more difficult for themselves but also difficult for the customer. On a different note, the food was nice, nothing upscale but your standard chain restaurant type of food and the staff were very friendly, accommodating and helpful. I’ve taken away one star due to the rush at the end and the difficult payment. If I could change anything, I would have happily paid for an extra hour on the mezzanine to allow us more time but they did not offer this and I would prefer to pay for the meal whilst sat at the table and have the drinks paid for as and when ordered. Other than that, thank you for accommodating us as...

Formerly known as Ginos, Riva Blu has continued with the great food, atmosphere and service that Ginos was renowned for.

On the corner of Castle St and Dale St, opposite the town hall, it is one of the best located bar/restaurants in the city, at the heart of the Commercial District.

Split into three areas, there is the long, main central bar once you go through the Castle St reception. With seats all surrounding the central bar, and with an often buzzing atmosphere, it is hard to move once seated. Unless you want to go to the toilet, which you need to be a Crystal Maze winner to find the first time, whether you've had a few drinks or are sober! (For the record, the toilets are downstairs, but very hard to find!)

The restaurant is beyond the bar and probably sits up to 120 people. The food is always good quality and the service just as good.

Downstairs, as well as the toilets, there is a function room and a separate bar. I've been to many good events in here. Only issue is there is no draft ales.

Overall, you will nearly always have a great time and bite to eat at Riva Blu.

(Update: new review of Saturday 2nd Sept 2023 visit) We had a table booked for for 7 people at 3pm. We arrived 2.50pm and waited at the bar for 10 minutes and nobody asked us if we wanted a drink, even though there was only one other customer at the bar. We were then told our table was ready at 3.05pm, so we moved down to the restaurant area without a drink.

When we finally got a waiter to take our drinks order, it took them around 15 minutes to bring them to us. The frustration of all was beginning to set in!

With many mistakes on food and drink orders, average food at vastly increased prices over the last 12 months (price increases well above inflation of cost of purchase) and really poor service, we almost did something we've never done before and asked for service charge to be removed- although we chose to pay it and just get out without desert.

My meal was supposedly a half roast chicken with roast potatos. It was more like half a chicken breast, cut up and spread to try and cover more of the plate. There were three tiny (one mouthful each) roast potatoes-no wonder the waitress kept asking if I wanted fries as well when I was ordering. Whilst I said 'no' to fries twice, stating the meal comes with roast potatoes, I was happy that the waitress also brought me fries (added to the bill, even though not asked for!) even though I had said I didn't want any.

If I could do a new review, this latest visit would get 1 star for service, 2 stars for food, 1 star for value and 2 stars for atmosphere. If I had to summarise the experience in one rating, it...

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

First time eating here and we were both looking forward to it. Our table was booked for 8pm and we arrived a little early at 7.45 pm and no issue the staff were absolutely lovely.....

Firstly the good points on arrival, the staff were very welcoming from the bar staff to the waiter and waitresses and nothing was too much trouble for them.

Then we had to literally fight through a completely overcrowded bar area with music pounding away and was very uncomfortable squeezing past everyone to reach the table in the window. Trying to have a conversation was really hard as the volume level from the bar was drowning everything out and already starting to give both of us a headache.

We ordered 2 Mojitos which I thought were non alcoholic versions as we could not taste any rum in them, and both were very poor. I tried for some time to drink it but in the end just ordered a Pint of Moretti which was good.

We ordered 3 starters, 1 each and 1 to share, I ordered the Calamari which was very tasty but there was not a great deal of Calamari in it !! (3 breaded pieces) my partner ordered the Scallops which again were very tasty but drowned out by far too many lentils. The 3rd was the Bruschetta which had freezing cold filling on crispy bread which very quickly turned to mushy bread due to the temperature difference and was not that nice.

Our main course, I ordered the Special Ribeye Steak at 300g with a mushroom sauce instead of the peppered sauce and it was fantastic and highly recommended. The flavour of the fat and the soft meat was incredible and one of the best steaks I have ever eaten. My partner ordered the Pork Belly which was a bit of a let down being drowned in the sauce and very much over flavoured with what tasted like 5 spice but just far too much sauce.

The biggest problem was trying to eat a relaxing meal to "House Music" and the volume was just way over the top and ruined the whole experience to be honest.

The final bill was £120 and £2.50 for some paracetamol from the shop around the corner as both our heads were banging after 90 minutes of over loud music.

We left the tip on because the staff were very good, but we then had to fight to get out through the bar which was ridiculous to get out.

The experience was not a good one for the money spent and I doubt we would go back even though the steak was fabulous.

I have since learnt from our sons that the packed bar is always on a Friday & Saturday so if you dont like it too noisy then don't book it on those nights, and they really need to decide on those nights if it is a "Bar" or a...